UW–Madison’s Brian Burt and Blayne Stone are authors of a new article in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, titled “STEM validation among underrepresented students: Leveraging insights from a STEM diversity program to broaden participation.”
Burt, the lead author of the article, is an assistant professor with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA), and a research scientist with Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB). Stone is an ELPA doctoral student, and a research associate in the Wei LAB.
Burt and Stone collaborated on the article with Rudisang Motshubi of Iowa State University, and Lorenzo D. Baber of Loyola University Chicago.
“Previous research suggests that campus-level STEM diversity programs often serve as a valuable resource for persistence and completion among students from underrepresented populations,” begins the article abstract.
“However, more knowledge is needed to better understand how students experience STEM diversity programs and identify with their specific practices and activities, how those practices and activities shape students’ experiences, and how the practices, activities, and participation influence how students view themselves as members of the STEM community,” the abstract continues.
To increase this understanding, the authors studied 20 underrepresented students participating in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, funded by the National Science Foundation, and described the programmatic influences of LSAMP that support students’ successful progress within STEM disciplines.
The study “centers students’ voices to inform educational practices, policies, and future research focused on the persistent need to broaden participation in STEM careers.”
Learn more and access the article on the APA Psychnet website, here.